Pettie told The Dallas Morning News that someone else -- not Thomas -- threw the chair. He said that when he and his friends passed by Thomas’ table and he addressed the player by saying, “What’s up?” Thomas responded that that he didn’t talk to “faggots.” Pettie told The News that when he passed Thomas’ table again, Thomas made another remark derogatory remark about gays.“I asked one of the guys, ‘What the hell did you say?’ ’’ Pettie said. “As Tim continued to instigate the situation, one of the guys hit me in my mouth. Another one of his friends hit me. They pushed me down onto a table.” Pettie says he picked up a chair to defend himself. One of the men who hit him in the face then picked up a chair and threw it, he said. Pettie said he caught the chair, but not before it hit [a woman].

He said Thomas then yelled out that the police had been called and that it was time to leave. Pettie said of the confrontation: "It was juvenile. It was like a bunch of high school kids. It reminded me of high school. The popular kids picking on lower classmen. That’s how they acted. (Thomas) acted like a big bully kid in high school. Pettie said that he is not gay, but that some of the friends who were with him are lesbian."

Roger Emrich, a sports reporter for KRLD radio, was eating in the Denny's at the time and witnessed the fight. Emrich said the fight involved companions of Thomas but not the player. Emrich says he never heard Thomas utter an anti-gay slur, which is disputed by witnesses and the police report.